Enemy Observation
by TheManTimeForgot
Summary: Part 7 of 'The Nexus Crusade': Upsilon readies his mind for the ultimate foe...
1. Chapter 1

"Archive, replay footage on conflict, location: Beach City."

A three dimensional environment rose from the ground of this empty warehouse, as I had commandeered it for my research. The images were from my memories of us and the Crystal Gems fighting the Alphae. My focus was not on the monster but the Gems: their weapons, techniques, and that fusion of theirs, Opal. I documented every movement for error, for any person can be an enemy and I must prepare for any opening so I can grind them into dust. Slight problem though: Steven might get in the way, will need a way to not harm him too badly….

"End Replay." The room went dark again. I closed my eyes and put my hands to my temples. What am I thinking? There are more important things to do, I must focus!

"Play combat data originating from Nekomi, Chiba Prefecture."

The holograms shimmered, shifting to the arcade basement. My memories only consisted of fighting Hild with Gamma and Omega, finding out what Mara can do as well should be a priority. I walked around, surveying the battle. The horrors of Armageddon did increase our skill as a unit, as the separation of the two demons went well. Fighting Hild however was less effective, she was fast and judging by the frequency of lightning flashes, can throw out more spells than Mara. Gamma showed increased ferocity, which in turn fed Omega while I stood back and tried to block some of Hild's magic.

I should have been more aggressive, I could do that and keep fighting easy, and the assault collapsed because of it. My idleness sparked Mara to bring a shot into our melee, blasting Gamma; an extra body would have made her think twice. Hild flung him with psychic energy into Omega, knocking the two out. Alone it was worse, she was in my mind, I couldn't come close to her, like fighting Helen, she knew _how _I fought. Then I got hit, not with magic, but by a snap kick from a piston that ruptured my spleen.

"Note; Hild is good at both physical and energy based attacks despite her appearance."

Gamma and Omega are down, I'm standing but useless, Rho and Epsilon were worn down to the nub dealing with Mara. I noticed the fragments of the broken coffin begin to vibrate. I warned Rho and Epsilon of threat and Epsilon got in the way of the now violently moving shrapnel. The wood wrapped around him, shredding his exposed skin.

"You think you had a chance?" Mara shouted over Epsilon's screams. "None of you can come even close!"

As soon as she uttered those words, Hild was behind her shaking her head.

"Mara," She cooed. "No need to make a mess of our new assets."

"B-But-"

"_Let him down." _

Mara obliged, and Epsilon flopped to the ground, in so much pain he could barely breathe. Rho and me were left standing, both of us unable to continue. Rho grip tightened on the hilt of his sword.

"We won't give up!" He cried.

"I'd rather you didn't." Even though she was so small, Hild's voice was one of absolute certainty. "In fact, I'll let you try again."

"What?"

"It's simple really, we will let you take the next door out of here," She said. "Come back if you are tough enough after your journey."

A door appeared behind us as we picked up Omega and Gamma. Before we went through I turned around.

"And Epsilon?"

Hild leaned over his still convulsing body. "He intrigues me, so consider him an incentive to come back…"

"End Replay." Walking away from the scene I realized that something was wrong with the room when I couldn't leave it. Contacting Gamma or Psyche failed as well. Using a portion of power, I created an aura around myself to illuminate my surroundings, but it only lit up a two inch area around myself. Bringing Maschinengott up to the _Vom Tag _position_,_ I stood ready for the ambush.

"If you want a fight, the dark won't help you."

"Oh please, you and I both know that I don't need it." Hild manifested from the shadows, not in the guise of a child, but as a regal woman. Despite her attempt at diplomacy, I held my guard.

"Why do you appear to me?"

"Who else could I talk to? Omega can't hold a civilized conversation, Rho's faith means he'll never listen to me, and Gamma," She moved next to me, and whispered in my ear. "I don't think he likes me."

"I fail to see a reason why he should."

She broke away and walked around me. "You really need to ask him about that."

"Make your words quick."

"In that case, I'll 'cut to the quick' as you might say. I want your help."

"In what way do you need my help?"

"What you were doing here, I have to say, is quite impressive. But I can see it in your eyes; you would be stronger on your own, able to bring down your foe _if_ you were alone." She hunched over, so her violet eyes were level to my own. "If you could give me the data you receive from your…crusade… back to me when we meet again, I'll lend you a hand."

The thoughts began to swirl in my head. "And what would the price of my loyalty be?"

Hild placed her hands on mine. "Besides all the knowledge that you will gain on the trip, I'll add my own to it as well."

"It's a pity that a woman at the age of thirty is considered 'over the hill' in this culture."

"Thirty? Maybe not, but thirty _million _however…" I let her force my hands, and my weapon, down. "I can give you the chance to make yourself perfect." Another person appeared; Helen, or at least an illusion of her.

"To gain the power to be free from everyone holding you back."

Every part of me was suddenly sensitive to my environment: Hild's touch, the weight of the blade, the warmth of our bodies. It seemed so promising…

"I see you need time." Hild let me go and walked away into the black.

"As a show of good faith," She called. "I modded your Archive to create working copies of any weapon you encounter. Come back to me in one piece, okay?"

The demon left me alone but it was a temporary state, the lights came on and Gamma rushed in. Regaining my composure I met him at the door.

"Hey, are you okay? Psyche said she couldn't reach you."

"The Archive has been giving me some trouble."

"Any breakthroughs?"

"I need more data." I stated. "Tell me everything you know about Hild."


	2. Temptation

"She's not just your garden-variety demon, Hild is the Daimakaicho; the ruler of all demons. It's rarity for her to come to Earth, but due to certain 'complications' she keeps an eye on her ventures."

"I assume you mean the goddesses Mara spoke of."

"Yeah, there's a few down there as well. Their conflict has stalled in the goddesses' favor, but with our interference something might change."

"And the human?"

"He's the center of it all."

"Why?" I asked. "What is the objective?"

"Misery," Gamma said as we walked towards the door. "Demons of any kind seek to create misery wherever they go; it's their source of power. This one could potentially generate a lot of misery."

"And we fit where?"

"With our curse, we have to go to him first just to figure out how to undo it." Gamma realized as got to the door. "That's her trap."

"Then there is no need to send us through all of these hoops." I pointed out. "It is too risky that we could be killed."

"Well, Hild was always a particularly shrewd businesswoman…" He opened the door and on the other side were a squad of soldiers in white armor holding strange firearms. They wore helmets with a permanent scowl, most likely for intimidation.

"You two, identify yourselves!" Their leader commanded.

Gamma was most likely going to negotiate; I didn't wait. With a wave of my hand the squad leader began to shudder, coughing and eventually choking. He dropped his weapon, threw off his helmet and every orifice on his face leaked blood. It took only a few seconds afterwards for him to collapse and drown. The others glanced down but did not lower their guns. There was a lot of murmuring between the group, but with Psyche monitoring all transmissions we could hear them easily.

"Are they the ones?"

"Doesn't seem like it, armor and weapons are all wrong."

"If that's the case, they might be acolytes, kill them and continue search."

Gamma and me took their advice to heart, moving in at speed. The soldiers use las-rifle equivalents with polymer armor; useless against AX. We cut them down with little effort. After the skirmish we inspected the bodies, which were similar in size, skin color and facial structure.

"This isn't good." Gamma noted. "Psyche, scan for usable information."

"What are these people?" I asked.

Gamma revealed a symbol on the right shoulder: a black wheel with eight spokes. "Imperial Stormtroopers. The oldest ones are clones; the reason these ones look the same."

"Who are they looking for?"

_"Reports show a woman, pale skinned from….Dathomir?"_

"Ventress…" Gamma's hands turned into fists.

"What do we do now?" I said.

"We look for her, we'll find her, and kill her."


	3. Encroaching Darkness

"On your le-"

"Can't suppres-"

"Call for backup!" Each of the troopers were cut off by our quick blades and the only sound left was their dying moans. Gamma looked over the bodies with grim calculation. I guess he noticed the difference between our methods; his kills left them intact if not missing a few limbs, while mine could be considered 'grizzly', leaving little left that was recognizable.

"Upsilon, have you always been so…violent?"

"It is how I have been taught to fight." My mind glazed over my past conflicts under my master. "Defeat means to wipe away any chance the opponent has of victory. I achieve this goal by leaving no means for my opponent to fight back."

Gamma's head tilted quizzically."Even so, Helen doesn't fight quite like you."

"Her style is inflicting pain. I never bothered; pain can be overcome, so I break my enemy by destroying as much of their body as possible."

A sarcastic smile crept onto his face. "You remind me of our quarry. Psyche, if you would?"

_"I hope you know what your doing, and help me with the scan for once you two." _It had a point; our combined perception could find this person faster. As we continued through the alleys and other dark corners of this planet, I asked Gamma about our target…

"Asajj Ventress, there aren't many more dangerous around these parts, that are still alive at least. One part assassin, one part bounty hunter, and the rest wrapped in cruelty."

"What can she do?"

"As much as we can, more or less, which is why we need to catch her before she gets the drop on us instead." He pressed on even harder, moving ahead of me. It allowed me time to figure out what's up with Gamma. His behavior has been rather erratic since we started this journey. Even against Nero and Athanor he was civil, but now I am not so sure he's all together.

"Psyche." I spoke softly.

_"What, you've swallowed your pride enough to ask __**me**__ for something?"_

"Laugh all you want, but this isn't about my ego. Do you think Gamma is okay?"

It paused for a moment. _"I don't know anymore, finding Hild changed him. He's something else now, something different."_

"That is not good; could the continued campaign decrease his mental stability?"

_"No! Victor promised me that would never happen!"_

"I hope you are right." I stopped there, as Gamma stood in a town square that had been cleared out sometime earlier, now that it was night the chill only added to it's solitude. Gamma's eyes were tracing the rooftops, spying for the unseen. I nearly came out as well, but Gamma waved me back.

"Upsilon, Psyche, can you feel that?"

_"There's something here but I can't pinpoint it."_

"Considering Ventress's skillset, she is hiding. Was most likely following us for some time. What do you want me to do sir?"

"Keep out of sight, I'll handle her. Psyche I'm going to need your help." He drew his katana, almost white in the moonlight. The area grew colder, much more than it should have gotten so suddenly. Then something dropped down, a pallid shape that appeared almost dead, but it did move with well trained fluidity. This woman who had to be Asajj Ventress took no action at first, but had a very entertained grin on her face. I couldn't see Gamma's face, but he gripped his sword tighter.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to find me." She said. "Not many remember this place."

"There aren't many that are as persistent as I am." Gamma's tone was bitter. "Also I will admit, coming to Rattatak was pretty clever. But your running has come to an end."

"Really?" Her hands brushed a pair of sword hilts at her hips. "Not like a Jedi to just kill a person."

"Doesn't take one to stand up for justice." He raised his katana to attack. "And it won't take one to beat you."

As he charged Asajj, she grabbed the two hilts, each of which generated a column of red energy. As Gamma struck first, the energy sparked and hissed in resistance as the blow was parried. The counter came fast and erratic, it took a while before I noticed those hilts were slightly bent, making the angles the swords travel awkwardly.

"Psyche, what do you think about Gamma's chances?"

_"Can't talk right now, Kinda busy!" _Strange that Psyche would reach the limit to its RAM; being stuffed in that armor can't help matters. She must be using most of her runtime to alerting Gamma on Ventress' intent. Man and machine working in tandem to plot out every attack. I couldn't help but smile at their ingenuity. Getting a few seconds to breathe, Gamma wrenched down a nearby metal door and flung it at her at speed.

Asajj held her ground and swung at the door, splitting it in half, the two pieces falling to the ground with a bright orange cut. Before they landed, Gamma slid up to her and took a wide swing with his off-hand kodachi. It clipped her wrist, forcing one of the energy blades out of her hand. It deactivated, and flew out of sight. Recovering, Asajj spun around, and threw the second, still active, blade attached to a string. It hooked around and hit Gamma's hip, travelling up his right side, The armor was weak around the waist and the exposed flesh burned badly. He buckled in defence, and Asajj pushed out both of her hands. An invisible blow took Gamma off his legs and he hit a wall with a crunch. Barely conscious and coughing up a mix of dust and blood, he couldn't get up before Asajj was pointing her sword down at him.

"Don't try following me again." She threatened, and walked away while Gamma passed out.

_"Do something!" _Psyche screamed.

"Be quiet and I will." I whispered back. I stepped out and she wheeled around to face me instead. I held my ground as I stood in front of Gamma.

"You're some kind of friend of his?" She asked.

"More or less." I answered. "But the more important question is who are you, Asajj Ventress." My enthusiasm couldn't be more apparent on my face. "He told me that you were a cruel killer, but you let someone who has been hunting you live. Did something change? I would like to know."

"You won't get an answer from me."

I drew Maschinengott. "Yes I will."

She came at me with a shout. In the corner of my eye I saw the second blade come in low across the ground and into her hand. Spotting it gave me enough time to bring my guard up to _Ochs _to deflect the high strike and Panzerfaust for the low one. Those strikes were all I needed to know about her technique: all speed and shock, but no real strength behind her attacks. All I did was turn to meet her blows and keep her off my back. Fighting me right after Gamma wasn't a good idea; a bad angle allowed me to perform _Ringen, _grabbing her with Panzerfaust, slamming her down and tossing her away.

"Losing step? I'm disappointed." My voice was even. "You have the power, but lack the will to do anything with it. Are you afraid of something?"

She sprung up and I decided to end this quickly. moving into attack. A quick overhead hit got Asajj to her knees and a backhand from the shield broke two of her ribs, ending the fight with a gasping, wheezing woman. Holding her head still, I got a good look at her face: she was pale, black markings drawn on a bald scalp, and a set of icy blue eyes. Meeting them with my own, I waited until I saw a red ring around the iris, establishing a connection to her mind. Once I had done that, her memories flowed into me; glimpses of the pain she had endured and the people she's killed on scores of worlds.

It was over soon and I let her head go, reaching over to her ribs and mending them with my power. Asajj got up to her feet moments later. "I don't have time to deal with you now. You, on the other hand, came home to look for yourself. Do not let us get in your way."

She was still furious about my intrusion into her mind, but we were both well aware she couldn't do anything else to object. Without another word she sprinted away. No longer threatened by her I scanned for any more enemies. In the dark I did spot a figure standing motionless.

"Psyche, take care of Gamma." It didn't respond to my request, but I had a feeling it would obey. I took a careful step closer to the figure to see it more clearly. It was at least humanoid in shape, which I realized as it came out into the square. It kept most of its features hidden in shadow, as if it was pulling them from every corner of the square. I did not dare to move in its presence, as all I could see was its long white hair and glowing red eyes staring down at me with derision.

"Impossible…" I said, absolutely blindsided. "Even here you've managed to reach me…"

"Actually I never left." The shadow receded and instead of my master, it was Hild who had surprised me.

"Be careful; start seeing Helen everywhere and people will think you're actually crazy." She walked over to Gamma and bent over to place a hand on his, causing it to grow into its obsidian shell. Gamma's face tightened with pain as his skin burned where it met the glass.

"Have you not caused enough damage?" I suggested.

Hild chuckled as she took her hand away. "Oh please, I wouldn't do _anything _to hurt any of you!"

"And these curses you put on us were what, blessings in disguise?"

"They can be if you let them. I mean, you've done a pretty good job with yours." At her response I remembered Rho calling forth his armor, and I created a hologram of one of Asajj Ventress's weapons. Instead of being a single image it was a cross-section of every component.

"A crystal focused energy projector…"

"Things change," Hild came around to my shoulder. "And are somewhat still the same." Her arm wrapped around mine, and the parts assembled themselves and became a solid structure in my hand. Hitting the activation stud bathed us both in its red light. "See?"

"I understand."

"Then you would consider my proposition?"

I broke away and pointed the blade at her. "_Never_._"_

She blinked, not expecting my answer. "How interesting; you're not one who cares where power comes from, so tell me why."

"Two reasons. Your proposal would cost me my freedom; I serve who I wish."

"And the other?"

"There is no one beyond my capacity to kill. That has been true for over a century and even you will understand this in the end."

She moved towards me, and when she came in contact with the energy it deactivated in response to the pressure. "You can't kill the entire universe."

"I will try."

"I hope you will." She said. "A shame you would reject me, but keep this as a consolation." A puff of smoke brought forth a wooden chair, slightly worn. "I heard this was your favorite chair to sit in."

"Fine, now leave."

"Lighten up, or not, either way I'll have fun." The ruler of demons left as quickly as she came, leaving us behind. Practicing with this new weapon, I thought about this encounter. I was…unsettled by her constant presence and unknown limits to her power; rescuing Epsilon would be one thing, but breaking this hold over us will take a whole other magnitude of strength.

"Uhhhh…Uppsilonnn…."

_"Victor…"_

I stopped to check up on the moaning Gamma, who had propped himself up on a wall.

"Did you get that off Ventress?" He asked.

"No, I managed to make one with my ability. What is it?"

"It's called a lightsaber. It can cut through all but a few select materials," He touched the burns on his side with care. "Luckily my AX armor is one of them." He then started to laugh. "Rho always joked about me making one, but the materials don't exist on our Earth. So what happened after I was out?"

"I fought and defeated Asajj Ventress."

"If anyone could do it, it was you. But still I wish I could have been the one." He regretted.

"Sir?"

"You don't have to call me that."

I ignored him. "Before that she called you 'Jedi'. What does that mean?"

"The Jedi are-well were-a group of peacekeepers who used their power to maintain order in the galaxy."

"What happened to them?"

"War happened." He said. "They were never truly ready for it. Before they knew it, they were betrayed and killed off by the Empire."

"They don't kill?"

"They avoided it whenever they could, bringing who they caught to trial."

I sighed; the inflexibility of the Jedi was what destroyed them in the end. "And you would have killed her?"

Gamma didn't speak for a minute. "Yes."

"She would not have killed you, so why the aggression?"

"She's still done so many terrible things, but maybe I was wrong. The reports are a little sketchy; some actually said she ate her victims. Maybe she could have become the hero she once was."

"And against Hild?"

"There's only one way to go with her, and that's straight through. Her very nature is to spread pain, even if it seems like pleasure when she describes it." His face became saddened. "I'm not asking you to follow me this far, I know it's not your fight…"

"It is why I am here."

"Thanks for that." He got to his feet. "Now let's get back to the others."

"I will be here for a while longer." Gamma left me to my own devices as I walked back into the center of the square. Hild needed to be beaten, that much is certain, but how to fight something so experienced and powerful…

"Things change and are yet the same…Archive, display subjects Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl." Holograms of each were presented to me as I said them. "Just like them I'll find out what they know, and then use it to rip them all to pieces! It's as clear as…crystal…."

* * *

_"Not a good sign…not a good sign at all…."_


End file.
